On 16th September 2016, the conference “The role of green banking in Greening the economy” was organized by the VNU University of Economics and Business (UEB). Theconference is in the framework of the national project “The role of green banking model in transforming the economic growth model - international experiences and policy implications” chaired by Dr. Tran Thi Thanh Tu, head of Faculty of Finance and Banking, and sponsored by NAFOSTED fund.
The conference aimed to enhance the awareness as well as to encourage the participation of Vietnam commercial banks in providing green financial products and services, in order to meet the demands of different kinds of enterprises.
The conference was chaired by Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son, Rector of UEB with the participation of more than 100 leading experts in the field of banking and finance including representatives of National Financial Supervisory Commission of The Social Republic of Vietnam, State bank of Vietnam, Vietinbank, Vietnam Commercial University, Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration, Center for Vietnamese and South East Asian studies, Center for European studies and other scientists, scholars, lecturers, graduate students, media agencies.
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Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son - Rector of the UEB delivers speech at the conference
4 presentations in the conference were delivered by speakers who are senior experts in the field of banking and finance including i) Dr. Can Van Luc, Director of BIDV training school, advisor of BIDV’s CEO, who analyzed the role of green banking in sustainable development; ii) Dr. Tran Thi Thanh Tu, Head of Faculty of Finance and Banking, UEB, who presented on the opportunities, challenges and the conditions to implement green banking; iii) Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Hue, Director of Stock Exchange Department, Institute of Banking and Finance, National Economic University, who analyzed the difficulties and advantages of enterprises when approaching green financial services iv) Ms. Nguyen Thien Huong, Expert of the Program on risk management of environment and society, International Finance Organization, who shared about the international experiences on how to enhance the resource of green finance towards sustainable development.
Experts, specialists, managers, policy makers in the field of finance and banking actively discussed the presentations of speakers regarding situation analysis as well as recommendations to implement green banking in some countries and Vietnam.
The result of studies and discussions in the conference showed that establishing green banking model would be an effective solution to raise resources for sustainable development of a country. However, in several developing countries including Vietnam, green Banking is still a new concept due to the fact that the importance of environment protection has not been acknowledged properly compared to other development targets in Vietnam. Therefore, the awareness of the banks themselves as well as Vietnamese enterprises on green banking is still limited.
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The speakers presented speeches at the conference
In order to address this problem, according to many experts, the government as well as the commercial banks must increase the recognition of theỉr leaders and enterprises on the benefits of this green banking model, strengthen the propaganda forenterprises about green development, green credit, and promote the consumption habit for green products . There is a fact that sometimes enterprises and society understand the necessity of environment protection , but they still do not comply completely. Hence, Dr. Le Xuan Ba - Ex-president, Central institute for economic management, suggested to study more about the reasons as well as finding solutions for this issue.
Experts at the conference also agreed with the necessity of integrating green banking model into the overall development strategy of banking sector. The Government need to create and provide solutions or policies to develop green banking and encourage green investment from enterprises. The international experiences shared in the conference also showed that, the commercial banks must establish and implement the system of risk management for environment and society, create a specialized department to evaluate and develop green credit to support the enterprises who have the demands for green investment, minimize the barriers in approving green credit, enhance general development policies on green investment, green credit. The representative of International Finance Corporation (IFC), Ms. Nguyen Thien Huong expressed the willingness of IFC in sharing experiences and supporting commercial banks in applying regulations on green banking model.
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International and domestic guests attend the symposium
The conference also received many ideas, contributions and recommendations on the solutions efor policy makers in order to support the establishment and development of green banking in Vietnam nowadays.
The conference ended successfully and opened a new research direction on green banking and finance, creating an academic forum to discuss the studies andpractical experiences about the development of green bankingservices, broadening a network among the experts, researchers, bank leaders and policy makers at UEB. In the upcoming time, Faculty of Finance and Banking will collaborate with experts from IFC to integrate the content on environment evaluation and social responsibility into undergraduate and postgraduate training programs.